Gather A Flock

by Peter Leavell @peterleavell

Create a following, and they'll sell your books for you.

But how to cultivate a flock of adoring fans?

How geniuses have created followings in the past—

—Escape the inescapable. (Houdini)
—Itch curiosity. (documentaries)
—Engage and connect. (talk to people where they are, both physically and mentally)
—Do something incredibly stupid and brag about it. (viral videos)
—Elaborate marketing schemes. (PT Barnum)
—An irresistible product. (according to time.com, PlayStation is the highest selling product of all time)
—Jump the Grand Canyon in your minivan. (Don’t. Just don’t)
—Be extraordinarily attractive. (mmmhmmm. We've already got that covered, haven't we? *swishes hair over the shoulder)

The key to each of these methods? 

Great marketers did. And did again. And again. They did their scheme over and over, perfecting their ideas and shows until polished. Houdini kept escaping. Ken Burns keeps churning out amazing documentaries. Ted Talk speakers connect with their audience. Stupid folks continue to accentuate their weakness. And so on.

How many diets work? All of them. If you can stick the discipline like a gymnast's landing.

Consistency, coupled with a great product, creates a following.

For ten years, I’ve set before me the slogan History is the passion. Historical fiction is the game. I consistently used my passion to make history entertaining for those who need a strange fact or a laugh. History explains the past to make a point for today. History shows successes and failures, giving guidance and hope to the lost.

But these things take:

Time. (years/decades)
Consistency. (similar product/content)
Practice. (tweaks for polish)

To maintain a decade long campaign, you have to LOVE what you’re doing, or be completely dedicated, or be slightly insane. Insanity helps.

Once you have a bit of a following, how do you keep them?

—Don’t jar them with wild changes. (When the musician had changed his sound, I remember yelling at his concert, ‘practice on your own time!')
—Know your audience, meet their needs.
—Keep content fresh. (copy/paste your previous successes doesn’t cut it. Like Houdini, challenge yourself to step up your game. Make your work more interesting, clear, and impossible to escape)

Gain and keep your following. They’ll encourage you when you’re down, sell your books while sleep, and frankly, they’re just the coolest people to hang around. Reward them with your best!

Tweetables:

Consistency, coupled with a great product, creates a following. TWEET THIS!

Do something incredibly stupid and brag about it. #marketing TWEET THIS!

                                     ~~~~~

Peter Leavell, a 2007 graduate of Boise State University with a degree in history, was the 2011 winner of Christian Writers Guild's Operation First Novel contest, and 2013 Christian Retailing's Best award for First-Time Author. Peter and his family live in Boise, Idaho. Learn more about Peter's books, research, and family adventures at www.peterleavell.com.

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What Happened to All My Twitter Peoples? by Dora Hiers

Dora Hiers

Our four-year-old grandson calls his daycare friends "his peoples." His accent is so cute with that North Carolina twang, that I admit to asking him about his "peoples" every time I pick him up from daycare just to hear him say it. :)

Whenever we talk about his "peoples," my mind wanders to my "peoples" or my friends all over the world on social media. In case you didn't know, I'm a big fan of Twitter. I appreciate that Twitter allows follows without the obligatory follow back. Also, the 140 character limit and the list option makes for quick scrolling at different intervals throughout the day. It doesn't gobble huge chunks of my time like Facebook.

Recently, I was using JustUnfollow.com (now Crowdfireapp.com) to purge followers who immediately unfollow me or folks I follow who choose not to follow back for whatever reason. But, I must confess that I have never cleaned out my "inactive" followers, those people who haven't been active on twitter for three months or more.

Yowza! I probably spent an hour "unfollowing" and I was nowhere near the bottom of the list. Crazy.

Some didn't surprise me. Maybe they just decided that Twitter was one more distraction they didn't need, or they'd only tweeted a few times and Twitter just wasn't for them. But what did surprise me was the number of inactive users who had ten or twenty thousand or more followers.

What happened to all my Twitter peoples? 

Image Courtesy of Pixabay

You know how much time you invest to build relationships on social media. Why would someone abandon a Twitter account with such an impressive platform, especially after working so hard to accumulate thousands of tweets and tens of thousands of followers? I could only conclude that something traumatic happened in their lives, whether it was death, illness, or job loss, and eventually I stumbled onto one whose profile indicated that he'd passed away. This process made me sad, and I found myself praying over the profiles.

I learned a few things that day.

What happened to all my peoples? I care about my online connections, but at some point, it becomes impossible to keep up with all of them. Reach out, pray, and let it go. And that brings me to the next point...

You can't be everywhere. Sure, you can try. But if you're like me, the more social media sites I'm on, the more overwhelmed I am. I really only maintain a bio on Google+ and LinkedIn, but that doesn't stop the notifications from bogging down my inbox. Invites to connect and being added to someone's circles just sets off my internal panic button. I'm rethinking this whole "be everywhere" philosophy. Would I be better off concentrating on just a couple sites? I think so. I may eventually deactivate my accounts.

Keep it clean. You're allowed to follow 2k people before a follower/following ratio kicks in. Once that happens, you won't be able to follow more people until more people follow you. Yes, I know, it's a vicious cycle. But Twitter sets it up to prevent aggressive spammers. Since doing this, I scheduled a few hours each month to update and purge my twitter account to accommodate that ratio.

How do you feel about Twitter?
How often do you purge your inactive followers or have you put that off like me? 
What's your favorite social media hangout?

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Burn survivor Savvy McCord doesn't blame her best friend for running away. She can't even look at her scars without wincing. When Beck's disappearing act spans years, she relinquishes dreams of love and marriage. Unable to face Savvy's expectations of happily-ever-after, Beck Harmon deserts her, far away from the rumors that he's just like his father. When the wanderer returns, dreams of forever blossom in Savvy's heart, but she worries he'll leave again. Can Beck convince Savvy that her true beauty comes from her inner strength and faith? Will his idea to help burn victims regain their self-confidence restore Savvy's trust in him? Will love be what the wanderer needs to find peace for his hurting soul?

Dora Hiers is a multi-published author of Heart Racing, God-Gracing romances. She’s a member of RWA and her local chapter, Carolina Romance Writers. Connect with her on Seriously Write, Fiction Faith & Foodies, Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest.